Is there any way to manually release captured prisoners at your own will? (let them go free)

My specific situation is this:

I have captured lords of a given faction, and that faction has since been defeated. I suspect that I will not receive a ransom for these captured lords anymore, and wish to let them go to free. This will free up a few prisoner slots.

I know that one option is to just let them escape on their own while I hold them in captivity with my army or in a town.

A second option being to put them in one of my town prisons, freeing up my prisoner slots.

A third option that does not apply to lords is to sell prisoners to a Ransom Broker.

A fourth option that does not apply to lords is to release prisoners after winning a battle.

I want to let them go free. Is it possible?

I defeated Kingdom of Vaegirs.

I held some of their lords prisoner before they were defeated. I wish to let them go free. However, I see no way of doing this.

These are the only remaining lords for this faction because I still have them!

Nope, you can't just place them in your prison... they can escape from there aswell.
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LyrionJan 21 '13 at 13:33

Yes, however I am not asking how to hold onto them, I am asking how to get rid of them. Them escaping is not a problem, it is a solution. Plus, I can leave an infinite number of them in a prison (as far as I know), so it also frees up my prisoner slots.
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Lemmings19Jan 21 '13 at 17:02

Whoops I mistyped there, what I meant was you can just place them in your prison... there is no other way of getting rid of them other then letting them escape.
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LyrionJan 21 '13 at 17:59

You can talk to your faction's Marshall or king, they will often offer to buy prisoners from you. Not sure if they do so for a defeated faction though.
–
z 'Jan 28 '13 at 3:23

@spartacus I made it to my marshal (I am the King) but saw no option to get rid of any prisoners (of a faction that is still in tact). Available options: i.imgur.com/sBPXtQb.jpg
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Lemmings19Mar 30 '13 at 22:36

5 Answers
5

If you own any castles or towns I think you can put all your items in a chest in the lord's hall and all our troops in the garrison. Go unarmed with no troops with only the lords of the dead faction with you. Then you get in a battle and let yourself get defeated. Since all your items are in a chest and all your troops are in a garrison, all you should lose is your prisoners (the lords you want to set free).

After taking time to look for an answer, it would appear that aside from the options I suggested in my question, there isn't any way to manually free lords in order to open up prisoner slots at any given time. The best thing to do seems to be to let them escape on their own over time, or drop them off in a town's prison.

You can let non-lords go free when capturing new prisoners after a battle or hiring troops after a battle, but that's about as close as it gets!

Some additional help, if you drag them around with you (not in a garrison), in 72 hours, they have a 50% chance of escaping from you. Just take a bunch of them and drag them along with your party and do normal stuff until they "escape".

There is no way to release them in the native game (perhaps with mods, but i haven't researched those). Your best bet is to take them out of your cities garisson and keep them in your personal prisoner inventory. Escape chances for your lord are higher there then in a town, making it easier for the lord to escape. After that it all depends upon luck (i still have two counts as a prisoner in my personal stack, even though both Rhodocks and Swadia were defeated more then 100 days ago. Most of them, including their kings have since escaped and left the realm or joined a new factions (me) since then.

The easy way to do this:
Step 1: garrison the prisoner in your own castle/ town prison and then Step 2: manually enter your own prison. Talk to your prisoner and there is an option that says "You are free to go".

Also if you use Diplomacy mod, there is an option to release prisoners by talking to the Constable.

It is true that defeat or waiting for escape are alternatives as well.